The Vice-Chancellor of Kwara State University (KWASU), Muhammed Akanbi, has said it’s senseless for universities to produce first class graduates without enabling them with skills.
The VC made this statement after the report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that about 21.7 million Nigerians are unemployed.
Akanbi recommends that undergraduates should pursue entrepreneurial skills while in school.
The Professor in a statement when he led the management team of the institution on a working visit to some selected government agencies in Abuja to mobilise support for the university, noted that KWASU, in its effort to provide a solution to the joblessness of many youths after graduation, decided to make it a norm to produce graduates that are already engaged in one job-enabling skill or the other.
He said;
“Already, we encourage our students to engage in different entrepreneurship skills, acquire, hold and consider all certificates important. It does not make any sense if you are a first-class student and you are looking for a job. And I mean first-class in any programme.
“Our university is a university of community development and entrepreneurship. We have a center which is being rejigged and rejuvenated. It is now called the Center for Vocational, Technical and Entrepreneurship because we don’t want to teach entrepreneurship just in theory.
“We get our students involved in vocational things and technical aspects. You will see students engage in things like making face masks, face shields, hand sanitizers; some are into tailoring, some are into carpentry, some are into what I call mechanical automobile repair and things like that.” He added.
